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breedable

 - 3 dictionary results

breed

  [breed] verb, bred, breed⋅ing, noun
Use breedable in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to produce (offspring); procreate; engender.
2. to produce by mating; propagate sexually; reproduce: Ten mice were bred in the laboratory.
3. Horticulture.
a. to cause to reproduce by controlled pollination.
b. to improve by controlled pollination and selection.
4. to raise (cattle, sheep, etc.): He breeds longhorns on the ranch.
5. to cause or be the source of; engender; give rise to: Dirt breeds disease. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes.
6. to develop by training or education; bring up; rear: He was born and bred a gentleman.
7. Energy. to produce more fissile nuclear fuel than is consumed in a reactor.
8. to impregnate; mate: Breed a strong mare with a fast stallion and hope for a Derby winner.
–verb (used without object)
9. to produce offspring: Many animals breed in the spring.
10. to be engendered or produced; grow; develop: Bacteria will not breed in alcohol.
11. to cause the birth of young, as in raising stock.
12. to be pregnant.
–noun
13. Genetics. a relatively homogenous group of animals within a species, developed and maintained by humans.
14. lineage; stock; strain: She comes from a fine breed of people.
15. sort; kind; group: Scholars are a quiet breed.
16. Offensive. half-breed (def. 2).
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME breden, OE brēdan to nourish (c. OHG bruotan, G brüten); n. use from 16th century

Related forms:
breed⋅a⋅ble, adjective

Synonyms:
1, 2. beget, bear, generate. 5. promote, occasion, foster, produce, induce, develop. 14. family, pedigree, line.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

breed 
O.E. bredan "bring young to birth, carry," also "cherish, keep warm," from W.Gmc. *brodjan (cf. O.H.G. bruoten, Ger. brüten "to brood, hatch"), from *brod- "fetus, hatchling," from PIE *bhre- "burn, heat" (see brood). Original notion of the word was incubation, warming to hatch. Breeding "good manners" is from 1596. Breeder scornful homosexual term for "heterosexual person," attested from 1986.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 2breed
Function: noun
: a group of animals or plants presumably related by descent from common ancestors and visibly similar in most characters;especially : such a group differentiated from the wild type under domestication
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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